Garden and Green

The Futuristic Earth Race Powerboat - Credit: Lance Wordsworth

The Futuristic Earth Race Powerboat - Credit: Lance Wordsworth

When someone who has worked in the field of oil exploration downs tools and puts his house up for sale and everything on the line to highlight the benefits of Bio Diesel, derived from plants by sailing around the planet in a futuristic powerboat totally powered by bio-diesel, perhaps the world should pay attention.

Pete Bethune from New Zealand decided on pursuing this dream to help highlight the benefits of Bio Diesel and also the fact that our oil won't last forever and we need to start investing in alternatives. (After all if your sucking milkshake from a straw and you reach the bottom of the glass, no matter how hard you suck nothings going to come up the straw, and the same applies to our oil supplies.) The Earth Race aims to circumnavigate the planet in a quick a time as possible using 100% green fuel.

The boat, a 78 foot wave-piercing trimaran, was made in New Zealand and is top notch in terms of its technology, speed, low environmental impact and design. Like something out of a Batman movie, the boat has been drawing crowds wherever it has been pulling up in harbour. Pete and his crew, are currently visiting locations around Europe, before the big race starts on 1st March when the 'Earth Race' will get underway leaving from Valencia, in Spain, with a world record in its sights. The current record for circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat stands at 74 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes, set in 1998 by a British boat 'Cable & Wireless'.

Full details of the challenge can be viewed on their site below.Garden and Green, will keep readers up to date on the challenge and hopefully will have an audio interview sometime in the near future with Pete and perhaps some video footage.

Earthrace.net